This coin is issued by Emperor Sheng Tsu (K'ang-Hsi, AD1662-1722). Most coins of K'ang-Hsi are quite common and are worth less than $10. But this one was minted in Taiwan mint, which is a rare mint of K'ang-Hsi. There are two kinds of K'ang-Hsi coins of Taiwan, the large coins are much fewer than the small ones. And this is a large one in good VF, about $350!
I guess people are not familiar with Chinese ancient coins. And these coins are truly very hard to make identification if you don't know Chinese characters. So I would like to introduce some of significant Chinese ancient coins to CoinTalk.
Assur, thanks for posting the coin. We have a few Chinese collectors here, I used to collect more of them a couple of years ago. This one is really interesting since it appears the right character on the reverse is Chinese, not what is usually on the reverse of Ching coins. Is that right? Btw, what is the size?
Hi, medoraman! This one is about 27mm in diameter and 1mm in thickness, and about 4.3g. The two characters on the reverse are TAI (for Taiwan the mint mark) in Manchu and Chinese. This type of both Manchu and Chinese is quite common in the early Ching coinage. Another type has two Manchu characters: the left one is always BAO and the right one is the mint mark. And the latter became the only type in the later Ching coinage. I will post some different types of Ching coins tomorrow and hope this would help.
Coins struck in Taiwan - not those modern coins are generally uncommon to scarce. About cash coins, here's one good page: http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china8.htm Price is inaccurate now but you have a good idea that it is rather scarce.
Yes, I was more familiar with the two character manchu reverses of course, though if I checked I would imagine I have some two character ones in my collection. I apologize that I haven't looked at them in a while. Btw, what is that coin in your nameplate? Central Asian?
For excellent info on Chinese coins, try this site: http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china.htm or Xeno.ru I found these of great assistance when starting my Chinese cast coin collection a few years ago. I found that recognition of the key Chinese characters came fairly easily with practice, even though I had no prior experience of the language. Let's see more Chinese coins on CoinTalk!
Some of my collections, you can find both types of Ching coins. The upper ones are from the first two emperors only, and the lower are from later emperors and first two as well. http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china8.htm is a very good webpage, I also recommend it strongly. The price marked may have been doubled now. BTW, the coin of S-1438 (Taiwan mint) is modern forgery. The coin of my nameplate is a hammered penny from Stephen, king of England (1135-1154). You may check here: http://www.cointalk.com/t149164/ It's among my favourits.
你好! 我现在学习中文，所以对你们的货币很感兴趣！ So far I've really only started collecting 20th century Chinese & Taiwanese currency, no coins yet. Chinese coinage is so diverse that I'm really not even sure where to start! The links posted so far are very helpful though, thanks. Keep the coins coming!
你好，DMiller！你的中文很不错，很高兴你对我们的语言和货币感兴趣！多多交流哦：） I am so glad you have an interest in Chinese and its currency. I will post more
